Discount Profit Calculator
A discount can increase sales while quietly destroying profit. Test your sale before you run it and see how many extra units you would need to sell to make the same profit.
Discount type
Your numbers stay in your browser. Handmade Price Calculator does not upload or store your product costs.
Before discount
$18.73
41.6% margin
After discount
$10.58
29.4% margin
To make the same total profit with this discount, you need to sell 1.8× more units.
This calculator provides estimates only. Fees, taxes, and marketplace rules may change. Always verify current platform fees and consult a qualified professional for business, tax, or accounting advice.
When to use this calculator
Common scenarios where this tool helps
You're about to run a sale and want to confirm you'll still make money.
You want to know the minimum discount you can offer without selling at a loss.
You're evaluating a bundle deal and need to check combined margin.
Why discounts are dangerous for small sellers
For a large retailer with a 60% margin, a 20% discount still leaves 40% profit. For a handmade seller with a 22% margin, a 20% discount leaves a 2% margin — barely enough to cover a single shipping mistake.
Discounts feel productive because they can increase sales volume. But if the margin is already thin, more volume at a lower price means more work for less money. Always test before you run a sale.
Worked example: what a 20% sale really costs
Take a $30 product with a 25% margin — $7.50 of profit per sale. Run a 20% discount and the price drops to $24, but your costs do not move. Your profit falls to about $1.50, and your margin collapses from 25% to roughly 6%. The discount did not cut your profit by 20%; it cut it by 80%.
To earn the same total profit you made before, you now need to sell about five times as many units ($7.50 ÷ $1.50). That is the trap of discounting on thin margins: the sale feels like momentum while quietly trading a large slice of profit for volume you may not actually get. For a product with a 50% margin the same 20% discount is survivable; for one at 22% it is close to breaking even.
Before you run any promotion, know your starting margin. Check it in the product margin calculator, and if the margin is thin, revisit your base price using the complete handmade pricing guide before discounting at all.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on your current margin. If your margin is 25% and you offer 20% off, your new margin drops to about 7%. To earn the same total profit, you would need to sell roughly 3.5 times more units. This calculator shows that multiplier automatically.
Only if your margin is high enough. If you normally keep 30% profit, a 20% discount cuts your profit by about two-thirds. If your margin is below 25%, a 20% discount may leave you with no profit at all.
Free shipping can help conversion, but only if your price absorbs the shipping cost. If you are currently charging the customer for shipping, offering free shipping reduces your revenue by that amount. Test it with this calculator first.
Buy One Get One 50% off means the customer pays full price for one item and half price for the second. Your average revenue per unit drops to 75% of full price. For low-margin products, this type of deal can be unprofitable very quickly.